Dare Me Tonight (The Knight Brothers 3)

“And no one can know about us. I’m all about keeping business and pleasure separate, and in this case, I can’t afford to fuck up this deal because your brother loses his mind if he finds out about us.”

Pain lanced through her. If there was one thing he could have said to kill anything between them, that was it. “So you’re proposing a secret relationship.”

“Yes.”

“Like the kind my mother had with my father.”

He narrowed his gaze, obviously now realizing he had opened a can of worms he hadn’t intended. “Not really. For one thing, I’m not married.”

She perched her hands on her hips. “Then why keep us a secret if we’re two consenting adults?” She raised her eyebrows, pinning him in place. “Unless you’re ashamed of being with me?”

“No but–”

“Get out.” Her heart beat painfully and furiously inside her chest. She honestly didn’t give a rat’s ass why he was proposing a dirty little secret relationship. Just the fact that he didn’t think enough of her to offer more was reason enough to throw him the hell out now.

He stepped closer, remorse in his gaze. “Sienna, look, you have to see things from my perspective.”

“The hell I do.” She narrowed her gaze, her hand reaching for the nearest item on the counter and coming up with a salt shaker. “I’m asking you one last time to go.”

“And I want you to see how good we could be during the time we have.”

That was it. Her fingers curled around the ceramic piece and she threw it at him, hitting him in the shoulder, before it bounced off and landed uselessly on the floor.

He looked at her, shock in his expression. “I–”

“Get the hell out, Ethan.”

Very slowly, his gaze never leaving hers, he bent down and picked up the salt shaker, placing it on the table behind him. Then he backed away, walking out while shaking his head like only a blind, foolish man could do.

* * *

That had been a fuckup to end all fuckups, Ethan thought. His hand went to where the hard salt shaker had hit him on the shoulder, and despite it all, he grinned at Sienna’s spirit and spunk. She hadn’t taken his shit and he had to admire that about her. But he’d wanted to make her understand his reasoning.

So you should have started out explaining, not asking for a hookup like a dumb-ass teenage boy. He clenched his jaw at his own idiocy. Being around her made him stupid. All reason and common sense went out the window. The man who could negotiate billion-dollar business deals couldn’t even make one tiny woman see reason.

Still, now that he gave it thought, he understood how bad his proposal looked from her point of view. She had just told him about her family situation. He should have phrased things much differently, because from his perspective, a secret affair made pure business sense. Ian Dare wasn’t going to stand by and let him date – in her own words – the baby of the family.

Not that dating was on his agenda, and that was the point. He was dark; she was light. Sienna didn’t need to be dragged into his murky life, not when he couldn’t see past the pain of his marriage and the betrayal he hadn’t seen coming.

She might not be interested in his proposition, but he sure as hell couldn’t stay away from her or she from him. Which should make working together extremely interesting.

* * *

Sienna woke up the morning after Ethan left feeling nauseous again and a little dizzy. She was definitely going to have to make a doctor’s appointment and find out why she couldn’t seem to come to herself. In the meantime, she had a meeting scheduled with Olivia and the app developers at the stadium that she couldn’t miss.

Skipping breakfast because she wasn’t sure she could keep it down, she stood in front of her closet and chose a sundress in deference to the sticky, hot weather that persisted, along with a pair of low heels, and headed to work.

As her luck was running, she pulled into a parking spot at the same time as Ethan, who’d obviously rented a car for his time here. She climbed out of her Jeep and met up with him as they walked toward the entrance.

“Good morning,” he said, his gaze raking over her, his expression filled with male appreciation. “You’re looking good.”

She narrowed her gaze through her sunglasses. She couldn’t believe he was going to act like nothing had happened last night.

Yes, yes she could.

“Not speaking to me?” he asked, picking up his pace to keep up with her.

And deliberately, she’d bet, brushing his arm against hers as they walked. “Of course not. That would be childish.” She wished she could hold a grudge.

She wanted to maintain both her anger and her distance. What he’d offered her last night had been insulting and hurtful, more so because he’d just been deep inside her body and, she admitted, because she’d let herself believe that him showing up at her apartment meant more than it had.